Fr Václav Klement has held various positions in the General Council: Councillor for the East Asia-Oceania Region (2002-2008), General Councillor for the Missions (2008-2014), Councillor for the East Asia-Oceania Region (2014-2020) and Extraordinary Visitor “ad nutum et pro tempore” (2020-2022). In December 2022, the Rector Major, Fr Ángel Fernández Artime, with the consent of the General Council, appointed him as the new Superior of the Southern Africa Vice-Province for the six-year period 2023-2029. Here is the interview granted on the occasion of his new appointment.

1. Tell us a little about your family background and where you come from.
I give thanks to God for my family of humble origin, but deep in faith, growing up with three younger brothers, a hardworking father and tender-loving mother. Both parents grew up in the same parish youth group and were known for their life-long commitment to youth education in their free time. Our vibrant parish with many outstanding diocesan priests after Vatican II was a daily school of living faith in action, especially in the context of atheist education in all public schools I attended in Czechoslovakia until 26 years of age. Not easy to imagine the persecution going on for 40 years, with all 15,000 religious men and women dispersed, their mission works destroyed and called to hand over their charism to an underground situation. I came to know, only after the communist regime collapse, that my uncle, a factory worker who lived in the same small house, was a religious, indeed a bishop of the underground Church.

2. What is it about religious life, especially Salesian consecrated life that attracted you and made you choose it? Which Salesians influenced you the most?

3. What did you do before you entered religious life?
Actually, for me ‘to enter religious life’ was not like to ‘enter a Salesian house’. During those ‘blessed’ times of the communist totalitarian regime there were 400 SDBs in my homeland but no ‘official’ Salesian house. Half of the Salesians were really living and working underground, while another half were involved in the diocesan structures of the Church. In my vibrant home parish (second Czech city of Brno) since my childhood I was involved in many services as altar server, boy scout, choir member, volunteer or youth leader. At the age of 10 I got a life of Don Bosco in my hands for the first time, but the first living Salesian I met only at the age of 22, after the end of 2 years of military service. Those years ‘before’ becoming a Salesian were a time of hard studies, hard work in the parish, as a youth leader in different ways, while living as a second class citizen being a fervent young Catholic.

4. After having lived so many years of Salesian Consecrated Life, how would you sum up your life as a Salesian priest so far?
At the age of 65 it is probably time to ‘sum up’ my life already, right? Hard to say in just a few words. My life motto has changed over the years and since 2008 I stick to the Asian version of Da mihi animas, cetera tolle: All for Jesus, Jesus for all! It means to live each task, mission in my life with enthusiasm, joy and passion. The last 20 years at the side of the Rector Major I have never ‘looked back’, always trying to contribute to the growth of the Salesian charism with the best of my strength. Well, life is starting at 65!

5. Share the most memorable event in your life as a Salesian of Don Bosco?
Well, I treasure too many rich Salesian memories. First the Czechoslovakia underground formation time, like the 24-hour walk in the mountains to reach a secret provincial day gathering or listen to sharing of confreres who spent years in prison and forced labour camps. Really, it is very difficult to mention ‘the most memorable’ event: every day during the 16 years in Korea was a special time, then as the first regional councillor for East Asia – Oceania (EAO) it was probably our first Team Visit (2005) with its Vision-Mission workshop, or the EAO Salesian Brothers Congress in Vietnam (2018). There are too many events to give thanks to God for during my whole life. It is never enough to tell and give thanks for these stories and events! If you access the EAO (East Asia-Oceania) news ‘AustraLasia’ on the www.bosco.link you may know a little bit more!

6. Have you any regrets in life?
Yes, my regrets are always of the same nature. At the end of the ‘day’ (after an event, apostolic mission, after accomplished entrusted task) I regret that I didn’t give my whole heart to this task or mission. Concretely, that I didn’t listen enough to this confrere or lay mission partner, that I didn’t give my best to the process going on (maybe a discernment, preparation of a regional event).

7. What advice would you give to a young person who is considering religious life? What message do you want to send to young people regarding the missionary vocation?
Would you like to become consecrated to God? Would you like to follow Jesus like Don Bosco and his family members? ‘Give your heart completely to Jesus!’ – I would like to share this invitation of Don Bosco in all-encompassing youthful language to be attracted to this lifestyle of ‘becoming bread for others’.
Would you like to be deeply happy? Share your faith with those who are not so privileged to encounter Jesus face-to-face! During the past 30 years I have met most of the 14,000 Salesians and found that the most happy among them are usually the missionaries who left everything behind, their own country and culture, to be the light of Jesus as missionaries! Without sharing the faith the Church would cease to breath.

8. When you heard that you were appointed as provincial, what was your reaction?

This call was not much different from 1996, when Fr Juan E. Vecchi reached me by phone in the Philippines during an East Asia-Oceania regional congress of Salesian Cooperators. It was an overwhelming shock, not allowing me to sleep the whole night, absolutely unexpected, since I was not even a provincial council member and had just reached Korea 10 years before this new calling.

9. What would you say are the leadership qualities that you bring to your new role as provincial?
I’m happy to share with my Salesian confreres, lay mission partners, Salesian Youth and Salesian Family members my life, faith, Salesian convictions for the next 6 years. Leading is possible mainly by life witness; this is my deep personal conviction. As every disciple – missionary of Jesus, probably the first contribution is my personal life witness as a passionate Salesian, missionary, communicator, friend of the young, deeply in love with Don Bosco.
During the recent past I have assisted many provinces in their discernment process of reshaping, growing, visioning, and moving forward. After two years as a rector, six years as provincial of Korea and 20 years with the Rector Major’s council as extraordinary visitor I would like to share this experience with the dynamics of Salesian charismatic growth. As Don Bosco Salesians we are very rich in the spirit, living in the family with so many saints (living or helping from heaven). As my personal animation style, I like to bring everyone’s attention to cherishing and making these treasures fruitful in Lesotho, eSwatini and South Africa.
Animation and government in the Catholic community and in the Salesian family is rooted in deep listening. Not by accident do we ponder the 127 questions of Jesus in the Gospels. Also the current GC28 theme ends with a question mark: What kind of Salesians for the Young people of Southern Africa? I love sharing questions and ‘wasting time’ listening and walking with each confrere.
Returning after 21 years to the service of authority, after serving many years as councillor, is a challenge. However, fostering a family spirit and teamwork, investing in the lifelong formation of all the confreres, and getting closer to Don Bosco are the main qualities I’m longing for as I start my service of leadership.

The experience of Rodgers Chabala, a young Zambian missionary in Nigeria, starting from the rediscovery of Don Bosco when visiting his places.

Young Salesian Rodgers Chabala is part of the new generation of missionaries, according to the renewed paradigm that goes beyond geographical boundaries or cultural precepts: from Zambia he was sent as a missionary to Nigeria. The missionary course he experienced last September was a powerful moment for him, especially the atmosphere he breathed in Don Bosco’s places: a true spiritual experience.

The Salesian missionary vocation is a “vocation within a vocation”, a call to missionary life within one’s Salesian vocation. From the beginning, Rodgers felt a strong missionary desire, but it was not easy to make others understand what his motivations were. At the time of his aspirantate, when he was still unfamiliar with Salesian life, he was greatly impressed by the testimony of a Polish missionary and began to reflect and struggle with himself to decipher the intentions of his own heart. When the missionary asked “who wants to be a missionary?” Rodgers did not doubt and began the path of discernment, starting with the Polish Salesian’s answer to begin by loving his own country. Obviously, many challenges began to emerge and moments of discouragement were not lacking. As with Don Bosco, for Rodgers the help and mediation of many people was essential to distinguish God’s voice from other influences and to purify his intentions. God speaks through people, discernment is not merely an individual process, it always has a community dimension.

Last September, Rodgers attended the formation course for new missionaries, which precedes the official sending out by the Rector Major. Arriving a few days after the others, he met up again, after several years, with some of his novitiate companions and his old Rector from the studentate of philosophy. He joined the group and immediately noticed a special atmosphere, smiling faces and real joy. The reflections on interculturality and other insights provided by the Missions Sector were useful tools to prepare for the missionary departure. During the course, participants had the opportunity to visit Don Bosco’s places, first at Colle Don Bosco and then at Valdocco. Fr Alfred Maravilla, General Councillor for the Missions, asked the newly appointed missionaries: “What effect do these visits to Don Bosco’s holy places have on your life?” When one reads about Don Bosco’s life in books, doubts may arise and one may even be sceptical, but to see those places with one’s own eyes and breathe in the atmosphere of Don Bosco by retracing his story is something that can hardly be recounted. Besides the historical memory of what happened to Don Bosco, Dominic Savio and Mamma Margaret, these places have the capacity to reinvigorate the Salesian charism and make one reflect on one’s vocation. The simplicity and family spirit of Don Bosco show how poverty is not an obstacle to holiness and the realisation of the Kingdom of God. When speaking of Don Bosco we often run the risk of omitting the mystical part, concentrating only on activities and works. Don Bosco was truly a mystic in the spirit who cultivated an intimate relationship with the Lord.

by,
Marco Fulgaro

To be a missionary in Amazonia is to allow oneself to be evangelised by the forest

The beauty of the indigenous people of Rio Negro conquers hearts and causes our own heart to change, to expand, to be surprised and to identify with this land, to the point of it being impossible to forget “dear Amazonia”! This is the experience of Leonardo, a young Salesian in the heart of Amazonia.

How did the idea of being a missionary arise in your heart?
This desire matured within me over many years of listening to the stories of Salesian missionaries, their witness as bearers of the love of God to the world. I have always admired these confreres who experienced divine love in their lives and could not remain silent; rather they felt compelled to announce it to others so that they too could prove how much they were loved by God. So it was that I asked to have an experience in the Salesian missions in Amazonia among the indigenous peoples. In 2021 I began to live and work as a “practical traineee” in the São Gabriel da Cachoeira missionary community, in the state of Amazonia. It was a real “missionary school”, full of new discoveries and experiences, of unimagined challenges, facing realities totally unknown to me until then.

 

And why the choice of the Amazon? What is special about it for you?
The Church, including our Salesian Congregation, is essentially missionary. However, in the Northern region this is even more so because the territories are immense; access, generally by river, is difficult and costly; the cultural and linguistic diversity is vast and there is an enormous lack of priests, religious and other leaders who can carry out evangelization and the presence of the Church in these lands. Therefore, there is a lot of work and “heavy”, demanding work. It is not only the service of visits, preaching, celebrating the sacraments, as one might think of missionary life, but it means sharing the life and work of the people, carrying heavy burdens, feeling the need, exclusion, and abandonment of the people by the politicians; spending hours on the road or on the river; feeling the stings of insects; eating the food of the simple people “seasoned” with the spices of love, sharing and of welcome; listening to the stories of the elderly, often with words and expressions that we do not understand well; getting muddy feet and clothes, unheated cars; being without internet and, sometimes, even without electricity… All of this is involved in Salesian missionary life in Amazonia!

Tell us something more about the Salesian work where you have lived? What do the Salesians do for the young people of the region?
One of the purposes of our Salesian community in Sao Gabriel is the Oratory and Social Work: it is the Salesian playground, our direct work with the young people of “Gabriel” who frequent our Oratory every day and find in our house a place to play, have fun and live in a healthy way with their friends and colleagues. The young people here love sports, especially the national passion that is football. As the city does not offer many options for leisure and sport, the kids are present at our work all the time we are in operation and they complain a lot when it’s time to end the day’s activities. An average of 150 to 200 young people pass through our work every day. Besides this, the Salesian Missionary Centre offers courses for teenagers and older youth, such as computer and bakery courses.

You said that there are other missionary communities besides San Gabriel? How is this? How does the missionary work in Rio Negro function?
Because it has more connections and services, our Sao Gabriel community is the base seeing to links and logistics with our missions in the interior, especially Maturacá (with the Yanomami people) and Iauaretê (in the “tukano triangle”). In these missionary situations there is no formal commerce, and when there is, the prices are extremely high. Therefore, all purchases of food, hygiene products, materials for repairs and fuel for the boats used in the itinerance (pastoral visits to the riverside communities) and the production of electricity by generator, are done in São Gabriel and then sent by us, via river transport, to these locations. It is a very intense manual work, because we have to buy and then carry a lot of heavy materials to the boats that will take these products to our people who live and work in the other missions. We carry food bags, Styrofoam boxes with meat and several “carotes” (plastic containers for carrying liquids) of 50 litres of fuel each. Besides this, our house has several rooms, always available and prepared to host the missionary confreres who are passing through São Gabriel, either going to or returning from the other missions. It is a real work of assistance and networking.

And do you remember any powerful experiences from these “itinerance” on the rivers?
Yes, of course, in relation to these “itinerance”, one experience that impressed me deeply was the one at Maturacá. We had days of profound experience of the encounter with God through the encounter with others, with those who are different from us, with our neighbour, because we made a pastoral visit to the Yanomami people’s communities.

This remarkable “itinerance” undoubtedly left you with much to learn in your life, true?
These pastoral visits are a real “school” and give us life lessons: detachment, because the more “things” we accumulate, the “heavier” the journey becomes; living in the present, because in the middle of Amazonia, without access to the means of information, the only contact is with present reality, whatever is around us, the forest, the river, the sky, the boat; gratuitousness, because we face difficulties and weariness without expecting gestures of human gratitude. Finally, geographical itinerance leads us to an “inner itinerance”, conversion, a return to the essentials of life and faith. To sail the rivers of Amazonia is to sail to interior rivers.  To be in the missions is to be constantly provoked to free oneself from preconceived and rigid ideas in order to be freer to love and welcome the other and to announce the joy of the Gospel to them.

A very special lesson that I learn every day in the missions is that to be a good missionary I must be someone deeply marked and touched by the merciful love of God, and only from this experience can I be ready to “take” and “show” everywhere how God loves us and can transform our whole life. I also learn that, being a missionary, I take and show this love, first of all with my own life given to the mission. Without saying a word, by the simple fact of leaving my origins and embracing new cultures, I can reveal that the love of God is worth much more than all the things we consider valuable in our lives. Therefore, the missionary’s life is his first and greatest witness and proclamation!

You have had this missionary experience, but can it be said that you too have been evangelised? What has given you satisfaction in your heart?
Finally, being in São Gabriel, the most indigenous municipality in Brazil, “home” to 23 multicultural and multilingual ethnic groups, I realize every day that, in calling us to be missionaries, God calls us to be capable of being enchanted by the beauty and mystery which is each person and each culture of our world. Therefore, following the example of the Master, Jesus, missionary of the Father, we are called to “empty ourselves” of everything in order to “fill ourselves” with the beauties and marvels present in every corner of the earth and to associate them with the preciousness of the Gospel. This was one of the most profound experiences for me.

At the end of all this, I believe that satisfaction comes from the smiles and cries of our boys and girls playing, running, jumping, throwing a ball, telling their jokes; it comes from the curious and brilliant glances of the men and women of the forest; joy comes from contemplating the beauty of nature, the generosity of the people and the perseverance of the Christians who remain, at times, for months without the presence of a priest, but who look at and touch with love and devotion the little feet of the small image of Our Lady or the cross on the altar. In the Salesian missions of Rio Negro one learns to live without excesses, to value simplicity and to rejoice in the little things of life. Here all becomes a feast, dance, music, celebration, faith. Here one lives in the same poverty and simplicity as at the beginning of Valdocco, where Don Bosco, Mamma Margaret, Dominic Savio, Fr Rua and so many others lived and were sanctified. Being in Amazonia certainly enriches us as people, Christians and Salesians of Don Bosco!

Interview of Don Gabriel ROMERO with the young Salesian Leonardo Tadeu DA SILVA OLIVEIRA, from the Province of São João Bosco based in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil.

Amazonia Photo Gallery

From Croatia to Ethiopia: don Bosco’s missionary dream continues

            Testimony of Josip Ivan SOLDO sdb, a Croatian Don Bosco missionary sent to Ethiopia among the members of the 151st missionary expedition. The missionary call arises within the Salesian vocation as an invitation to go out and go wherever the Lord calls us.

My name is Josip SOLDO, I am a Croatian Salesian born in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Let me begin by saying that my family has always played an important role in my life: I have three brothers and two sisters, one of whom is my twin sister. I am very proud of my sixteen grandnephews and nieces; my mother Veronica is still alive while my father died in 2006.
If I look back in the story of my vocation, I can say that from a very young age I felt the desire to become a priest. I was already an altar boy at the age of five and I kept up this service until middle school. As a teenager, however, I drifted away from the Church, keeping only the tradition of going to Mass on Sundays and going to confession, but without any real interest or involvement.

In 2016 I moved to Italy, to Rome where I stayed for three years, first in the novitiate in Genzano, where I took my first vows as a religious on 8 September 2017, and then in the Community of San Tarcisio to study philosophy at the Pontifical Salesian University. Inside me I felt a strong desire to go further, to go far, but I was not yet mature enough to make a serious and difficult decision such as missionary life. When I returned to Croatia for my internship, I realised that my doubts, uncertainties, fears, not feeling up to it, or inexperience could not stop me from being willing to become a missionary. God works through us even when we are not aware and we cannot rely solely on our own, limited, human strength, He uses our weaknesses, our little nuances to show His greatness. Many times it had happened to me that I had prepared well for meetings with the young people and then they often remembered nothing of the meeting, but they would tell me how significant for them were the things said in informal moments, which I often did not even realise. I understood that God does not need superheroes but “useless servants” who have in their hearts the desire to serve Him, and so I wrote my application to the Rector Major to be a Salesian missionary, ad gentes. In the very year that the Covid pandemic started, I received the answer from the Generalate: missionary with destination Ethiopia! The first step was to learn patience amidst the limitations due to the health situation and the slowness of the bureaucracy to obtain the necessary documents. In the meantime, I did my practical training in the communities in Split and Zagreb, two different experiences which gave me the opportunity to get to know many saintly confreres and young people who showed me the face and voice of God.

The culture shock for me was quite strong: the different food, a language that I could not learn straight away, the customs of a new culture… I experienced many emotions, I felt nervous and often wanted to isolate myself.

I have to thank the Congregation’s Missions Sector for the missionary training course that has just ended because it was an opportunity to name these shocks, to see that other missionaries also experience the same challenges and that the process of inculturation is not easy. In spite of the difficulties, I feel in my heart a strong desire to go forward and urge myself to overcome myself. With time I know that I will understand that in missionary life the Lord does not ask for much – “He asks for everything” to give you everything.

My formation towards the priesthood continues by beginning my studies in theology, before returning to the mission. Surely there will be new challenges, but there will also be the joy of being where the Lord wants me, the fullness of knowing that what I am doing is God’s will. Now I feel that there is nothing that can fill your heart as the Lord does when you are there where He wants you, when you know that your life finds fullness of meaning in His Divine plan, and the hope that He will never leave your hands until heaven, where I hope to be one day together with many brothers and sisters.

Interviewer: Marco FULGARO